How Sweet it is
Alternatives to sugar abound for home baking
If you’ve sauntered down the baking aisle lately, you may have noticed that sweeteners have multiplied like Tribbles on the USS Enterprise. Long gone are the days of the simple three choices: granulated, brown and powdered sugar. Sorting through all of the sugar alternatives has officially become confusing.
Get used to it. Sugar has quickly become a hot nutritional issue ... some might even say it’s public health food enemy No. 1. Sugar is in the cross hairs.
This means the smorgasbord of alternative sweeteners is probably only going to expand, and this might actually be good news for home bakers. All these dizzying choices offer consumers both new-fangled and ancient (as in Old Testament) sweetener options. Many health-minded individuals are looking these days to lower their overall sugar consumption. Others may simply want to replace highly refined granulated sugar with sweeteners that are more natural and healthful, yet that don’t sacrifice baking performance.
Processed foods make a goal of cutting back on sugar more difficult, as sugar is stealthily added to many food products. Sugar has covertly crossed the baking line and invaded much of what we eat.
“Sugar consumption has been on the rise in conjunction with the popularity of sugar-sweetened beverages such as sodas, juices, sports drinks, energy drinks and even fancy coffee drinks,” said Amy Giffin, registered dietitian for the Sheboygan Area School District and food blogger at eatrightcooktonight.
Giffin argues that the ubiquity of sugar in modern diets only
reinforces that it’s wise to prepare your own food. For home bakers, it may be time to rethink that four-pound bag of white stuff.
America’s Test Kitchen’s 2016 book “Naturally Sweet: Bake All Your Favorites with 30% to 50% Less Sugar,” might be a place to start.
The book’s authors explain that granulated sugar begins as a plant, usually sugar cane or sugar beets.
After harvesting, it goes through a long factory process of extraction, filtration, centrifugation, crystallization, chemical clarification and decolorization, more centrifugation and crystallization, then finally drying and sifting.
The book rejects all artificial sweeteners for baking and focuses on the lesser-processed natural sugars of Sucanat (a contraction of sucre de canne naturel, or natural cane sugar, in French), date sugar, coconut sugar, honey, maple syrup, dried fruit and chocolate (yes!).
As for the artificial sweeteners, they apparently just didn’t measure up.
The scoop on sugar
Giffin believes that even while people are becoming more conscious of sugar intake, they may still be surprised at the amount and many forms of sugar that are added to foods.
One innocent-looking teaspoon of granulated sugar equals 4 grams.
The American Heart Association recommends limiting daily, added sugar to 24 grams (6 teaspoons) for women and 36 grams (9 teaspoons) for men.
That initially sounds doable until you eat one package of Hostess Ding Dongs (2 cakes), which sets you back 33 grams of sugar.
Even something savory can be a sugar shocker.
Canned tomato sauce, for example, can contain double-digit grams of sugar per half-cup serving.
A documentary produced by Netflix, “Sugar Coated,” presents quite a case against sugar.
Some people have gone so far as to argue that granulated sugar is toxic and addictive.
Nearly 75% of Americans eat more added sugars than they should, according to the USDA’s National Health and 2015 Nutrition Examination Survey.
One obstacle to changing that is the fact that nutritional labels do not differentiate between naturally occurring and added sugars.
Giffin recommends checking the ingredients list for some guidance.
More transparency will come in July 2018, when added sugar grams will be shown on nutritional labels, she said.
For now, she’s “frustrated with our food system.”
“Everywhere we go, there are unhealthy foods marketed to us.”
As for natural sweeteners, Giffin has her favorites.
“I’ve got maple syrup and honey in my pantry,” she said. “My favorite natural sweetener to use in both baking and cooking is dates. They are a great, whole-food alternative to sugar.”
Local products
In Wisconsin, there are oodles of local maple syrup and honey producers to consider.
“Honey is God’s gift to the earth,” said Doug Schulz, owner and “bee wrangler” at Wisconsin Natural Acres based in Chilton. “Our goal is to offer the most pristine honey in the world from the beehive to the jar.”
If you’ve got a sweet tooth you can’t deny, Giffin argues in favor of using natural sweeteners.
“Naturally occurring sugars that are found in foods such as fruit (fructose) and milk (lactose) are better for us because there is a lot more to offer within the foods they are found in,” she said.
“Fruit and milk contain protein, vitamins and minerals as well as fiber, which keeps us fuller longer and prevents the typical blood sugar spike you tend to get when eating sugarsweetened foods.”
Schulz agreed that natural sweeteners are superior.
But with honey, what about raw vs. traditional?
The only difference between Wisconsin Natural Acres’ raw and traditional honeys, he explained, is that the traditional is slightly warmed to make it pourable.
None of his artisan honey is considered heated or filtered, which is something that would reduce some of the honey’s beneficial components such as pollen, he added.
“We don’t damage it. It’s loaded with antioxidants and living enzymes, which makes it healthy,” he said, noting that his raw honey contains more of those beneficial properties than traditional honey.
Honey quality and production methods with other brands can vary significantly, just as with maple syrup, so check labels and websites.
America’s Test Kitchen also generally prefers raw honey as being more nuanced and less floral.
Bees already do such a superb job making honey naturally, Schulz explained.
“It’s pure, it’s done, it’s ready for human consumption.”
Baking with honey
Schulz recommends using honey while baking because it retains liquid, resulting in moist baked goods.
He said honey is sweeter than granulated sugar, so less is needed for recipes.
Whatever your views on sugar may be, most would agree that less is better, no matter what form it takes.
Unfortunately, this sets up a classic inner conflict if you’re the kind of person who caves at the sight of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies or a piece of creamy pie.
So, get ready to explore unfamiliar new sweeteners.
Consider recipes for some of your indulgent favorites using no sugar, less sugar or less-refined forms of sugar.